ORIGINS OF THE SKINHEAD MOVEMENT

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The skinheads have their roots in the poverty-stricken areas of London. The London’s East End is supposed to be their “birthplace”. This is no coincidence. There were a great number of hard mods [1] in this area. The East End was also the traditional housing area of London’s workers. While some of them had well-paid jobs, there were others who earned much less. Their qualifications were no longer adequate after the technological changes in industry.

At the same time, big redevelopment projects threatened their milieu. Besides London, this pertained especially to larger towns like Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow. Sterile blocks of flats were built; big super markets replaced small shops and old pubs (Bredel 2002: 21).

Deprived youths in particular were affected by the dramatic social changes. Faintingly, they had to watch how their living area changed more and more, how the neighbours from next door had a good job while their parents were threatened with a drop in social status. More and more families from the middle-class and coloured people moved to their quarters and endangered the image of the East End as an area where only British workers live (Ibid.: 21f.).

Some of these youths reacted to this situation by changing their attitudes and appearance. They revived the traditional values of the working class (for example manliness, comradeship, tidiness, discipline) and tried to protect their living area against all “intruders”. Their clothes had similarities with an idealised worker. They wore robust working trousers (often jeans), braces, a plain shirt and heavy boots – the Doc Martens (Ibid.: 22).

The masculine and tough appearance of these youths was emphasized by their haircut. Their name is derived from it: skinheads. Teenagers who belonged to this new subculture were called skinheads because the people were able to see the skin of their heads through their very short hair. However, bald heads did not become a “hallmark” of the skinheads until 1976/77. In the first years in particular, there was not one of them who had an entirely shaved head (Ibid.: 22f.).

The appearance of the skinheads was supposed to show their origin in the proletarian milieu, their derivation from the working class. On the other hand, it was a kind of opposition to the hippies. Hippies were rejected by many of the underprivileged youths because they did not like their long hair and perceived them as unmanly, soft and weak. They disliked them also for other reasons: many hippies came from well-situated families, had attended good schools and preferred extensive discussions and sit-ins to violent actions (Ibid.: 23).

In October 1968, the skinheads were noticed for the first time by the public. About 200 of them walked behind 30,000 demonstrators who were protesting against the war in Vietnam. They shouted “Enoch! Enoch!” and beat some students. With these actions, they wanted to show their support for the xenophobic utterances of Enoch Powell who was a member of parliament for the Conservatives at that time. In his notorious “rivers of blood” speech, he had warned about an impending “inundation” of England with foreigners.

1969 is considered as the actual date of birth of the skinheads. In this year they got their name. Before that, the members of this new youth movement were called noheads, baldheads, cropheads, prickles and mods (Ibid.: 28). Actually, the mods (especially the hard mods) were forerunners of the skinheads. They influenced them very strongly.

The term mods is derived from the word modernists. The members of this youth culture wore expensive suits and designer clothes. They enjoyed riding their motor scooters. The hard mods came from poorer families than the rest of the mods and were more aggressive. A group of them developed into skinheads.

The so-called rude boys and boot boys also had a strong impact on the skinheads. The rude boys were sons of immigrants who had come from Jamaica or the West Indies to Great Britain. Their haircut was extremely short. The boot boys were supporters of English football teams like Manchester United. They wore heavy boots, ordinary shirts and jeans and were notorious for their fights against other hooligans (Ibid.: 24-26).

Between 1970 and 1972, the riots at football games reached a height in England. The English gutter press declared the skinheads to be exclusively responsible for them. But the riots were not the only reason for their bad reputation. “Paki bashing” was another reason. Some skinheads enjoyed beating up Pakistanis, Indians and other people from Asia. These racist acts reached such a high level of frequency that the governments of England and Pakistan talked about it.

In the middle of the 1970s, the skinheads were only a few stages before their demise. Because of their bad reputation, many of their former members developed into suedeheads. The suedeheads had received their name because of their longer hair. Another branch of the skinheads formed the second generation of boot boys. But although one could not see many skins between 1972 and 1976, the skinhead movement was not at all dead in Great Britain. It was able to survive particularly in the East End of London and in the industrial cities in the north.

The skinheads did not experience a new rise until 1976/77. They owed their renaissance to that subculture that they would be confronted with in later years: the punk movement (Ibid.: 28f.). In the following years the skinhead movement went through many changes and spread through a lot of countries (including the United States, France and Germany). But every true skinhead knows that it emerged in the East End of London.

[1]     Youths who belonged to the so-called mods.

Source:

Bredel, Holger (2002). Skinheads – Gefahr von rechts? Berlin: Rhombos.

Further aspects of chapter 1:

• Importance of soccer
• Rise and decline
• Punk
• Influences of the National Front
• Film critic “Rude Boy” (by and with The Clash)
• Southall and the consequences
• Skrewdriver

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